IT’S HERE! THE LATEST ISSUE OF LIVE.WORK.PLAY.

Who is Manny Sylvester? What and where is TERC?

Who is our Nevada State Senator? Who is on the cover of the magazine?

Find the answers…and more in the latest issue of IVCBA’s magazine, LIVE.WORK.PLAY. It is distributed FREE to postal patrons. Look for it in your mail in the next week, whether you get your mail at the post office or your house. Copies can be picked up at the IVCBA office, the Mountain Workspace building at 885 Tahoe Blvd. 

LIVE.WORK.PLAY. magazine features Washoe Tahoe residents and businesses. Not “north shore”, not the “basin”.  Just Incline Village and Crystal Bay. Its publisher is Kathy Hess Slocum, owner of Just Imagine Marketing. Kathy lives in Incline Village when she is not on some exotic adventure (with her husband Alan), biking the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route or on a driving trip with her parents, former Incline residents Merdene and Lew Hess. Kathy and Alan are avid skiers in the Diamond Peak Ski Team Masters program. 

Just one year ago, the community and business association was re-formed into the IVCBA, the Incline Village Crystal Bay Association with its vision of a thriving community that supports and is supported by its businesses, agencies, nonprofits, and residents. IVCBA’s communication tools include a community website, IVCBA.org, the SnapShot newsletter, and the magazine LIVE.WORK.PLAY. This spring issue includes a celebration of IVCBA’s first year, its 220+ members, and the positive initiatives that are addressing tough community issues. 

In Case You Can’t Wait to Find the Answers in LIVE.WORK.PLAY. 

MANNY SYLVESTER worked for a firm that helped broker the sale of 9,000 acres to Art Wood and the Crystal Bay Development Company in 1960. You’ll have to wait for your copy of Live.Work.Play. to learn more. Fun fact not in the article: Manny and his wife Madge sold the property on the corner of Country Club and Tahoe Blvd to Sierra Nevada College, soon to be part of the University of Nevada Reno. 

TERC is the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Resource Center on the campus of Sierra Nevada University at 291 Country Club Drive. Two things to visit on campus: 

1. The Tahoe Science Center is filled with interactive exhibits perfect for kids and tourists. This is the ONLY place to learn about the geographical history of Lake Tahoe.  

2. The Eriksson Education Center and  Demonstration Garden are all about Tahoe native plants. Wait for summer to visit. It was started by Margaret Solomon many years ago. Ben and Margaret are also the founders of Sierra Nevada College. Ben passed away at the end of February. He was a great man and will be missed. 

NEVADA SENATOR DON TATRO He was appointed by Ben Kieckhefer last November when Kieckhefer resigned to take a position with the Nevada Gaming Commission. Senator Tatro announced in early March his plans to seek election to a full term in District 16.

THE HONORABLE JUDGE ALAN TIRAS is on the cover of LIVE.WORK.PLAY. The Incline Justice Court is one of the feature stories. Watch the Local Lens next week for more on the Incline Justice Court.

BUSINESS UPDATE: The Tunnel Creek Café has been sold to Evan Roe, the chef at Big Water Grille, and Chad Burns. Kudos to property owners Craig and Liz Olson for running such popular businesses, strategically located at the beginning of the East Shore Trail (and next to the old Ponderosa Ranch property). Max Jones and Patti McMullan will continue to operate Flume Trail Bikes a popular bike rental and shuttle service. 

COMMUNITY MEETINGS

• IVCB Community Forum: Friday, April 1  at 9:00 at Incline Library
• IVCBA Welcome Reception for Crystal Bay businesses and residents: Tuesday, April 5 at 4:30 at Granite Place
• Washoe County IVCB Citizen Advisory Board (CAB) meeting: Monday, April 4 at 5:30 on Zoom

Details for these events and others can be found on IVCBA’s Incline Village Crystal Bay Calendar of Events.

*Find current and archived issues of LIVE.WORK.PLAY. at ivcba.org

About the Author Linda Offerdahl

Linda Offerdahl, IVCBA’s Executive Director, is a 34-year resident of Incline Village. After careers in education and computer product management, she and her husband Richard moved to Incline Village to raise a family and support the community and its endless recreational and business assets.

It’s either Raley’s or the post office…. the center of my social life, that is. COVID masks made it a little more challenging, but my red hair is unmistakable and always makes it easy to connect with people I’ve known for any length of time. OK, I make NEW friends in Raley’s, too. Sometimes it takes me 20 minutes just to get past the produce aisle! For someone who has always had “high social needs”, going to the market can be a necessity several times a week. I can count on catching up with friends and neighbors, commiserating if we make the mistake of going to Raley’s on a Friday afternoon in the summer.  If your corporate office with its social life around the water cooler has been replaced by your kitchen, maybe you can relate. Try Raley’s!

Raley’s Incline Center is more than its supermarket. It houses anchor businesses that truly make it the center of town: Incline’s major retailers Village Ace Hardware, Potlatch, and the suite of shops owned by John and Rebecca Roxburgh (Panache and Forever Rox).  Raley’s Center is facing several changes in the next couple of months.  

Village Ace Hardware, to become Mountain Hardware & Sports on April 1 (the very same employee-owned franchise with two locations in Truckee!) is expanding into the Pet Station space, allowing it to sell lumber products. According to General Manager Bill, the entire team is staying and will become franchise owners. The Falke family has owned and managed Village Ace Hardware, which opened in 1974 since the original owner Kirk Moon sold it to them. Thank yous are to be shared; with the entire Village Ace Hardware family for your dedication and service to Incline Village, and from the Falke family who has asked us to thank Incline for all these years of support! Kathy tells us the decision to sell to a well-established employee-owned brand in the area was easy.  As a side note, Pet Station is moving to 800 Tahoe Blvd, the intersection with Northwood that is also home to the Village Ski Loft.

Raley’s is home to popular family-owned restaurants. Changes are coming here as well. Rookies, with its deck facing Tahoe Boulevard, has been a popular locals spot for years, providing family dinners, a neighborhood bar, and even a coffee spot for my husband Richard and “The Philosopher’s Club” of retired men. Rookies is looking for a new owner with fresh ideas in keeping with a local vibe. 

Restaurateurs Rick Boyd and Tatiana Martz are looking to sell Bertie’s Chicken. The kitchen is modernized and can be used for any restaurant concept. They, as well as Rookies, have been SO supportive of our community through COVID and the fires last summer, providing meals for those in crisis.  We are grateful that Azzara’s, started by Sam and Denise Azzara and still run by daughter Andrea and son-in-law Cord, is still a popular fixture in Raley’s Center.

Gus’ BBQ has a new owner, Nellie and Jonah Saia of Tahoe Fresh Co./Tahoe BBQ, owners of the very successful restaurants in the Country Club Center: Austin’s, Fumo, and Cool Mess. I can’t wait to see what they do with Gus’ BBQ!

Oh, in case you are wondering about the old Bank Of America building on Village that backs up to the Raley’s Incline Center parking lot, watch for its reopening in April under Merrill Lynch Wealth Management as a financial services business. 

Between the market, its retailers, and restaurants, Raley’s Incline Center is a major employer for our community. Please support them and all local businesses with your patronage. Our community is a great place to live because of its services and businesses, not just Lake Tahoe and the beautiful ambiance.

I hope you joined other locals for March’s  “doubleheader” weekend. The Boosters had a very successful Crab Feed, raising more than $300,000 for Incline High School. The Downhill Dummy at Diamond Peak proved that creativity and craziness are alive and well in our community!

About the Author Linda Offerdahl

Linda Offerdahl, IVCBA’s Executive Director, is a 34-year resident of Incline Village. After careers in education and computer product management, she and her husband Richard moved to Incline Village to raise a family and support the community and its endless recreational and business assets.

Does every small town have a Crab Feed? Ours does! It is organized by the Incline High School Boosters and takes place this Saturday, March 19 at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe. It features crab and pasta, a silent and live auction upon which locals enthusiastically bid. The jazz band entertains, and seniors serve dinner in exchange for tips to fund the senior party. Tickets are sold out, an indicator of how strongly our community supports its schools. I can’t help but reminisce on the days when the parents cooked the crab and pasta…. thank you, Greg and Lisa Flanders and John Paganelli! It was originally held at the old Chateau, followed by the Kings Beach Conference Center, and organized by numerous parents. Donna McKay and Dolores Holets were among them. Me too. Moving it to the Hyatt was a game-changer. It now showcases the school in a video produced this year by parent and professional photographer Vicki Cruz.   Although the cost is much higher, so are the proceeds, which are expected to be over $300,000. Monies raised will go towards RISE week (a week of re-connecting, re-imagining, and re-committing to our school) as well as numerous education programs. A big shout out to Boosters President Nicolle Larson and this year’s crab feed committee. Visit the IHS Crab Feed online to bid in the auction or donate.

IVCBA 1st Anniversary

IVCBA is celebrating its first anniversary this month! A first “annual meeting” was held last week for the founding members and liaisons to review accomplishments, plans and get updates from member agencies. Our mission: Build community and grow cohesiveness for the sustainability of Incline Village and Crystal Bay. Our vision: A thriving community that supports and is supported by its businesses, agencies, nonprofits, and residents. 

IVCBA News Sources

IVCBA focused on establishing information sources for our community, particularly the community website, IVCBA.org, the SnapShot newsletter, and the Live.Work.Play magazine. The first issue for 2022 comes out at the end of March. These news sources, along with the merchant map and the Tap Into Tahoe Welcome program, have provided much-needed support for our businesses and nonprofits.  

Signature Events

The Local Heroes Parade and the Northern Lights Festival are our signature events and will continue in 2022. Mark your calendar for July 2 for the parade and July 4 for the all-new Sky Show with drones as a safer and environmentally friendly replacement of fireworks. The Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitor Bureau is the lead organizer for the Sky Show, with partners IVGID, Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe, Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation, and IVCBA. 

Collaboration and Advocacy

IVCBA is leading or involved with significant initiatives in our community. Incline Village has been accepted into Nevada Main Street, a downtown revitalization program. Watch for the upcoming press release. The first question will be, just exactly where is our town center?! Our founders chose to disguise the commercial areas in the trees of the Humboldt-Toiyabe Forest. I swear, we had trouble finding Raley’s when we moved here in 1988! At one time, Village Center really WAS the center of town. Between Village Center, Raley’s Center, Country Club Centre, and Christmas Tree Village is it any wonder we have an identity crisis?  Feeding directly into the Main Street program will be the Washoe Tahoe Transportation Study being undertaken by Washoe County this year. Thank you, Alexis Hill, our Washoe County Commissioner! 

Tahoe Prosperity Center, the regional agency focused on the economy, is at the center of two very important initiatives. Its Envision Tahoe economic study sheds light on our over-dependence on tourism and great concern for workforce housing. Read the study here. Tahoe Prosperity Center is about to reconvene the Washoe Tahoe Housing Partnership to look at strategies for addressing workforce housing in our community.

Opportunities to get involved with our community abound! Reach out to Linda@IVCBA.org

Business Updates

Oops….I ran out of space. I PROMISE…next week’s Local Lens will be dedicated to commercial area news!

About the Author Linda Offerdahl

Linda Offerdahl, IVCBA’s Executive Director, is a 34-year resident of Incline Village. After careers in education and computer product management, she and her husband Richard moved to Incline Village to raise a family and support the community and its endless recreational and business assets. 

Full disclosure: I’m always wearing rose-colored glasses! A positive worldview IS my filter. One of the reasons we started IVCBA was to provide a local news source. The North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, the local paper for 40 years took on a revered status after it was gone. Up until 2008 or so, it was DELIVERED to our doorstep 3 times a week. It was an original news source and it covered local fundraisers, the crime log, the school honor roll, and opinions about current hot issues. We looked forward to reading editorial columns by Andrew Whyman and Jim Clark, opposite ends of the political spectrum. Mary Jurkonis, formerly the publisher (now a realtor for Dickson Realty) brought both sides of an issue forward. She encouraged free speech and gathered the news weekly on Fridays in the Bonanza meetings where she served homemade banana bread and held court with agency heads and the local pundits. And once a year, the NLT Bonanza published a tabloid called Locals with feature stories on our “movers and shakers”. I guess they would be called Influencers now. This newspaper wove the fabric of our community together and brought us an identity of a thriving community that rallied behind its schools, nonprofits, and its service workers. We knew the owners and patronized local businesses. We are still a community that goes to local sports games and high school graduations. We did these things partially because Incline Village is a small town, but also because the newspaper covered these events only important to locals.

Although everyone knew print was becoming obsolete, it was a shock when the Bonanza was consolidated into the Tahoe Daily Tribune, a regional newspaper in 2018. Rob Galloway, the Tahoe Daily Tribune Publisher, and his staff work hard to cover Incline Village Crystal Bay news in a challenging environment dependent on selling advertising. We get great coverage of school sports…did you catch the Tahoe Daily Tribune’s articles on Incline High School’s girl’s basketball team taking first place and the boy’s team taking second place in the state finals a week or so ago? We can count on the Tahoe Daily Tribune to cover the major news and bring us the important stories on the region and the basin. The Sierra Sun is the sister newspaper that covers North Shore and Truckee, California. Although it seems counterintuitive to be aligned with South Shore, it makes sense from the standpoint of covering both Douglas and Washoe Counties in Nevada.  Pick up a copy every Friday from the newsstands around town.

Tip: the one at Raley’s is outside, around the corner from the Deli entrance. For the best coverage, subscribe to its electronic blogs and get “breaking news” on stories of interest to most everyone. IVCBA.org links to stories that are specific to Incline Village Crystal Bay.

OTHER LOCAL NEWS SOURCES

Ever heard of Moonshine Ink, published in Truckee? It covers some Incline news, often in a more in-depth way, and is published every two weeks. Pick it up at our local newsstands and visit them online. Also, look for The Tahoe Weekly every other week and always online, for ALL of the North Shore activities and events. Watch for their seasonal guides to recreational sports. 

Pick up the Reno Gazette Journal or visit online for Reno-Sparks and national news. Between the “de-cliners”…retired folks that now live in Reno, business owners, and employees who can’t afford to live here or just choose to live in an urban area, this can be a source of Incline Village Crystal Bay news too.

IVCBA NEWS SOURCES

• SnapShot is an aggregated newsletter intended to spread all of the news from our local organizations. It comes out weekly on Wednesdays. Subscribe here.
• Live.Work.Play is a magazine that brings feature articles on locals and our organizations. It is delivered to postal patrons in late March, June, and November. You can read the latest edition as well as past issues here.
• IVCBA.org has ALL of the latest stories and posts if you can’t wait until Wednesday’s SnapShot.

LOCALS UPDATE: Ginger Coltrin and Barbara Longshore (pictured below) reminded me that they have been locals since the 70’stoo!  (Read last week’s blog, “Who’s a Local?”)

About the Author Linda Offerdahl

Linda Offerdahl, IVCBA’s Executive Director, is a 34-year resident of Incline Village. After careers in education and computer product management, she and her husband Richard moved to Incline Village to raise a family and support the community and its endless recreational and business assets.

I started and ran a business in 2006 called Dress the Party, and it was full of “stuff” purchased from Halloween trade shows to vintage finds from thrift stores. What defines vintage? A rule of thumb is something that is three decades old. A similar rule can be applied to the definition of a local. A lot of people think a local is someone who has lived here longer than they have. For me, that is Diane and Jim Fisher and Suzanne  Schell, friends who moved here in the 1970s.  Richard and I have only been here since 1988. 

I find a more useful definition of a “local” to be someone who lives or works here and wants to be active in the community, regardless of how long they have been here. That involvement can be civic, volunteer, social, or active in “taking care of Tahoe”. Here are my top picks for the week for involvement:

• Volunteer: 
  • Sierra Community House needs drivers for food distribution. 
  • Incline Middle School needs volunteers for its Reading Buddies program. Email lharrel@washoeschools.net.
• Social: March is a great month to support our local schools. 
  • Next Monday, March 7th, Incline Elementary is hosting a brand-new fundraiser that is sure to become an annual tradition – a Mardi Gras BINGO Party at Gus’ Open Pit BBQ. 
  • Make sure to get your tickets (and hairspray) for the 40th Annual Incline Booster Crab Feed at the Hyatt on March 19 – the theme this year is the Eighties! The Boosters are seeking sponsors and auction item donations. 
• Culture: Attend the Artist Reception for Monika “Piper” Johnson and Liz Paganelli at the Mountain Workspace Art Gallery (885 Tahoe Boulevard) on Thursday, March 3 from 4:30-6 pm. 
• Take Care Tahoe: Take a page out of Carolyn Usinger or my husband Richard’s book: if you see trash in your neighborhood or on a trail, pick it up! Learn more about the Take Care Tahoe campaign. 
• Civic: Attend the Washoe County Citizen Advisory Board meeting on Monday, March 7 at 5:30 pm. Since the Washoe County Board of Commissioners changed the format of the “CAB”, it has become a “don’t miss” meeting on IVCB current affairs. On March 7, NLTFPD will provide an update on to what they have learned from the latest fire season and what to expect in the future, including emergency evacuation plans and procedures. Our commissioner Alexis Hill was instrumental in making these changes. Several “locals” are on the Citizen Advisory Board including the Chair, Diane Becker, who does an outstanding job running those meetings.

LOCAL BUSINESS

Many business owners can no longer afford to live here. That does not make them any less of a local, IMO. Doug Brown runs the Chevron station kitty-corner from 7-11. Doug just received an “Outstanding Community Partner” award from the Rotary Club of Incline Village. His staff helps Rotary with the small garden in front of the station. The Chevron is famous for allowing fundraising car washes in their parking lot….and of course, the outstanding auto service; I just bought a set of new tires from Doug. 

BUSINESS NEWS

The Piper J Art Gallery on Village closed at the end of February. Monika moved to Truckee (about that affordable housing…) Watch for a grand opening at 10153 West River Street later this month.  Piper J Art Gallery will continue to feature local artists like Liz Paganelli. For many of us, Monika used to be our hairdresser. Come say farewell on Thursday at the Mountain Workspace Art Gallery, 885 Tahoe Blvd. from 4:30- 6 pm at a reception featuring the installation of her work, along with Liz Paganelli’s mixed media series, The Raven’s Alphabet. Learn more about both artists here. 

What’s your favorite local business? What’s new in your business? Send your story to me, Linda@IVCBA.org.

“NEWBIES” 

If you see someone you don’t recognize at Raley’s or the post office, introduce yourself! They may be a visitor…why not be friendly…or they just might be one of the many new residents we have that are trying to figure out how to be a local as soon as they can.

NEXT WEEK: Local News

About the Author Linda Offerdahl

Linda Offerdahl, IVCBA’s Executive Director, is a 34-year resident of Incline Village. After careers in education and computer product management, she and her husband Richard moved to Incline Village to raise a family and support the community and its endless recreational and business assets.